1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the treatment of a package yarn end, more specifically to a method and apparatus for fixing a package yarn end on the outermost layer of a yarn package so as to prevent hanging or disordered yarn end during the transportation of the package and to facilitate the pickup of the yarn end during a peel-off operation of the outermost layer of the package, and a method and apparatus for picking up the thus-fixed yarn end on the outermost layer of the package and releasing the same from the tied or entangled state so as to facilitate the operation carried out in the subsequent process.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, in processes for producing synthetic fibers, such as polyester fibers, trials have been conducted for automating the peel-off operation of the package outermost layer, hitherto carried out manually, so as to improve production efficiency. Serious problems exist in the automation of this operation, in that hanging or disordered yarn ends occur because of the turbulent of air stream emitted from the air-conditioner when transporting the doffed package or because of package vibration, which prevent the yarn end from being picked up.
To solve such problems, there have been various proposals, such as a method in which a yarn end is fixed at a finished stage of the package exchange by the same sizing oil as used in a yarn spinning process (Japanese Examined Patent Publication (Kokoku) No. 3-38188) or a method in which a yarn end is entangled with the outer surface of the package by a high pressure jet ejected from a nozzle (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 63-57477).
According to the above methods, it is possible to fix a package yarn end and eliminate hanging or disordered yarns during transport.
However, the method using the sizing oil has a drawback in that lack of uniformity may occur during the dyeing operation due to irregular distribution of sizing oil, while the method relating to the entanglement of a yarn end with the package surface has a drawback in that the area in which yarn quality cannot be guaranteed is widened in accordance with the location of the entangled portion or nozzle pressure, or the yarn end may be embedded in the package, thereby rendering a yarn end pick up operation impossible.
As stated above, in the prior art, while the yarn end is fixed by entanglement thereof with the package outer surface so as not to be disordered, this entanglement state must be rectified and restored to a normal yarn state prior to proceeding to a subsequent process. This releasing operation, however, requires excessive labor and time as it is executed manually.